Dell Cloud Marketplace Connects Businesses to Cloud
If you’ve followed Dell over the past 18 months, it is clear to see the PC builder has certainly underwent some major transformations. For example, Dell delisted itself off of the stock exchanges, decided to become a privately held company and the executive team voted to bring back its founder Michael Dell and give him the role of CEO. The latest news out of Dell’s corporate headquarters seems to show that Dell is still trying to find itself in this new cloud-first marketplace. Michael Dell proclaimed a few months ago that “I think the public cloud is a crowded space, with lots of guys playing there. In terms of building a public cloud to compete with partners, we are not doing that at all.”
Dell has stayed true this quote but that doesn’t mean the technology giant is backing away from cloud completely. Dell’s stance seems to be vendor neutral. In Dell’s latest move to position itself to benefit from cloud, the PC builder turned cloud confab mentions that a private beta of Dell Cloud Marketplace was launched last week. What is Dell Cloud Marketplace? Nnamdi Orakwue, vice president of Dell software strategy, operations and cloud mentioned, “The marketplace will do for buying cloud services what Priceline did for researching and buying airline tickets.”
CRN quotes Lisa Larson, an executive with Vology, as saying, “When it comes to the cloud, the question is always ‘build it, buy it or partner?’” Lisa brings up a good point because as many businesses begin working with cloud, the answers to these questions aren’t always clear upfront. The last thing any project manager wants to do is to complete a project only to find out there was a much simpler and more frugal method of completing the same task using different infrastructure. Dell’s Cloud Marketplace aims to squash these concerns. In regards to the new Dell Cloud Marketplace, Larson said, “Dell is getting into a crowded arena of cloud brokers, but it can deliver hassle-free tools for comparing offerings and a single-pane of glass for cloud management. At least on paper, I’m interested.”
Further building upon this vision, Orakwue from Dell highlights the process of acquiring cloud services through Dell by saying, “Just like a partner will configure a storage solution through Dell.com, now they will able to configure a cloud service. The way the cloud is being purchased today, it’s online and frictionless. By the end of the year Dell Cloud Marketplace will be just that.”
